In the June issue, this column reported with alarm the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the case Township of Greece v. Galloway, which did more to undermine the Establishment Clause than any previous decision. This month, surprising good news came from the Court: it denied certiorari to an appeal of a ruling that the Elmbrook School District may not hold high school graduation ceremonies in a church. Justice Antonin Scalia issued a scathing dissent, however, that revealed his blueprint for rendering the Establishment Clause meaningless and effectively demolishing the wall of separation between church and state.

In March 1984, Madalyn Murray O’Hair, then president of American Atheists, came to Minneapolis as the featured speaker for the annual fundraising dinner for the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union (now the ACLU-MN).

St. Paul, MN, June 23, 2014 – Atheist baseball and the All-Star Freethought Conference is coming to Minnesota in July! The Minnesota Atheists and Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) are partnering with the Saint Paul Saints minor league baseball team for a night of “unbelievable” fun on Friday, July 11 at 7:05pm at Midway Stadium in Saint Paul. The game will be followed up with an All-Star Conference the next day at 9am at the RiverCentre in beautiful downtown St. Paul.

Since Sandra Day O’Connor’s retirement in 2006, supporters of Jefferson’s wall of separation between church and state have feared that the Supreme Court would dismantle its Establishment Clause protections. That came to pass on May 5 when the Supreme Court rendered its decision in the Town of Greece v. Greenwald case.